tilia Cloud

I must admit that CEO Sagen de Jonge and CTO Scott More have a special place in my heart. We first met in Chanhassen and later on we have been drinking some beers at tradeshows, and at their "open office" in Tokyo. The Open Office is in quotation since Tilia Labs is one of these kinds of strange companies that don't even have a corporate headquarter. A company born from IT and distributed work, and therefore also very natural that they offer solutions that truly understand the nature of the Internet. 

When I have seen what their software is capable of, when visiting printing companies, I get that what they do is unique. Of course, I understand what they do, but for most people, it's kind of amazing to see automation of processes just happens. No front-end is needed, and skilled programmers can automate processes that are seamless and just wonderful to see. Imagine that you have a printing company focusing on labels and where imposition and utilization of the sheet simply have to be as effective as possible to be profitable. When you see this in real-life in a huge company in the northern part of the US, you understand the value. When you visit printing companies where a change in workflow is actually appreciated because Tilia Labs have been able to develop software that enables people to focus on the more important thing than templates, hand-held imposition, etc., you know this is special.

At the recent LabelExpo, I again got the chance to meet Sagen de Jonge and Scott More. What has happened to the company over the past year is amazing. They are now more people - still working from various locations in the world (Scott is in Tokyo, Sagen in Toronto, Tyler in South Carolina, George in Ohio, Fiona in the UK, and so forth), they are selling more and more solutions, and their confidence in themselves is still delivered with passion, and a humble approach, that I am wondering about whether they are able to continue while growing.

However! Today I got a newsletter about the company's latest development. Tilia Labs presents tilia Cloud at Print®19. As the name indicates, this is a cloud-based solution. As you can see from the drawing, it's about Industry 4.0, IoT, along with some of the services Tilia Labs is already known for. Automation is the centerpiece, and for those who don't know, Tilia Labs flagship is a recognized imposition tool using Artificial Intelligence to support complex calculations and decisions. With integration to equipment capable of "talking," IoT tilia Cloud seems to be the software that connects these devices. I write "seems" since I must admit; if Tilia Labs products and services are already complex, the tilia Cloud solution seems to be even more complex. At least from the description provided. 

This is a constantly recurring issue I also touch upon in the films we do. Sometimes it's not a question about what's possible but a question about how to comprehend. I can't help thinking of how difficult the decision process must be for most printing companies. With our storytelling from Tilia Labs and other printers we, of course, hope to share the possibilities and the advantages, but to actually see how this influences your printing company, must be difficult. The printing companies who have people with IT-skills this may be easy to understand and get going, but when I look at the crowd of people and printing companies I have visited over the past 5 years - there is a need for storytelling like never seen before, training, education, sharing, knowledge, like never before as well.

But damn - NICE people, nice software, and judging from the reactions of printers who have already invested, as well as the promises given you should at least take a look at tilia Cloud and their other solutions. Deep respect for your work guys!